The DMV sees the light

The state Department of Motor Vehicles’ bird-brained plan to do away with vision tests for driver’s license renewals certainly didn’t last long, did it?

Just days after the department announced that drivers seeking to renew their licenses could do so on line and would be permitted to “self-certify” their own visual acuity, the DMV reversed itself on Friday.

Once again, drivers will have to go to DMV offices in person to get their vision tested in order to renew their licenses, pending the recommendations of a special advisory group currently reviewing the agency’s license renewal protocol.

Given the outcry that the DMV’s original plan generated, it’s not surprising the agency performed such a rapid flip-flop.

A driver’s ability to see the road and everything on it clearly is critical to the ability to drive safely. And since virtually everyone’s vision deteriorates over time, the eight years between driver’s license renewals is quite enough time for a driver’s vision to become seriously impaired. Hence the need for the periodic vision exam. Self-certification of one’s own visual ability, as the DMV had proposed, is hardly a satisfactory - or safe - alternative to a vision test.

It’s mind-boggling that the DMV ever considered the test expendable.

It’s also an indication of the agency’s fevered quest to cut costs, almost regardless of consequences.

“While I understand the desire to speed up the renewal process, we should not be jeopardizing the safety of our drivers to clear up the lines at DMV,” state Sen. Andrew Lanza said.

He pointed out that if just 2 percent of the state’s more than 11 million drivers were unable pass the traditional vision exam, “that would translate into hundreds of thousands of seeing-impaired drivers on our roads statewide.”

Mr. Lanza and Assemblyman Michael Cusick had introduced a bill to require eye exams for all drivers renewing their licenses when the DMV announced it was reinstating the tests.

DMV Commissioner Barbara Fiala said, “Those of us charged with delivering key government services to the public must always look for the most cost-effective ways to provide those services, but public safety will always be the first priority at DMV and it will not be compromised.”

She’s exactly right. But then, that was always true, and yet Ms. Fiala defended eliminating the vision test as a time-saving convenience for drivers as recently as last week.

Yes, all’s well that ends well, and the DMV deserves credit for reversing a bad decision, perhaps. Still, the fact that top DMV officials ever thought this was a good idea is troublesome.